Sidharth Malhotra had lost the bulk and full beard — courtesy his role of Monty Fernandes in Brothers — when t2 met him at Novotel in Mumbai’s Juhu last Friday. Instead, the 30-year-old was back to being the fresh-faced hunk we first met (and loved) in Student of the Year three years ago. Dressed casual in a grey sweatshirt and distressed denims, Sidharth spoke to t2 about his big Friday film, getting intimidated by Akshay Kumar and being his own competition.
You’ve lost all that bulk that we get to see on you in the Brothers promo...
Yes! As you can see, my avatar has changed back to what it was… clean-shaven, lean, smiling and not angry at all (smiles). But that change in physique was required… I can’t look the same in every film. In this film, I play a fighter and so I had to be slightly imposing and stand opposite Akshay Sir… look like I had the strength to beat him up (smiles). I had to make my body very bulky and look overpowering from every angle. I took 90 to 100 days to gain all that weight and now I have taken the same 90 days to get rid of it… so I am back to square one. In my next film, Kapoor & Sons (co-starring Rishi Kapoor, Fawad Khan and Alia Bhatt), I am playing this lanky boy-next-door who doesn’t really work out (smiles).
I enjoy it… I enjoy looking at the mirror every six months and seeing a different body. It keeps me excited and hopefully, it will keep the audience excited too.
And the women are liking that beard on you…
(Laughs) So I have been told! This is the first time I kept a beard… my mum was very happy. She’s a typical Punjabi and would always complain: ‘Tu daadhi nahin ugaata!’ (Laughs out loud) So when she saw me with that beard, she was like: ‘So, that’s how you will look if you ever play a Sardar’. After keeping that beard, I realised that it takes more effort to maintain that beard and crew cut. All these years I used to think ki jo log apne baal chhote rakhte hain, they don’t really care about maintaining themselves, but then I realised that to buzz your hair so much, you have to do it every second day, yaar, such a pain! The response that I have been getting has encouraged me to do something even more drastic next year (smiles).
How much did getting that body and beard contribute to your performance?
It did quite a bit, for sure. Monty is this big and bulky guy… he’s forever angry and angsty… he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. He has a lot of grievances against his family and he takes out all his anger in the fighting ring. For me to do justice to that, I had to become Monty entirely… I couldn’t remain Sidharth anymore. So after Ek Villain, I took four months off and I did only that… I woke up, trained, ate, then trained again (smiles), then slept. I was training to gain weight, I was training to learn mixed martial arts (MMA), I was training to learn grappling…. All of that helped me to get Monty’s body language. When you go through that drill and then keep rewatching your own training videos, you automatically get into the skin of the character. I had to work doubly hard to ensure that people didn’t associate Monty with any of my previous characters… he had to be new for the audience. So I think everything falls into place… you just have to give it some time.
I remember people telling me things like, ‘At the beginning of your career, how can you set aside four months for just one role?!’ But that was instinct and my call and I hope that it will pay off when Friday comes and Brothers releases (smiles).
But wasn’t there any insecurity to set aside an entire year for one film, especially when you saw your contemporaries having multiple releases?
Not really… and I am not saying that for effect, trust me (smiles). What you are asking me is exactly what people have been asking me over the last one year, but I honestly believe in quality over quantity. This is a film which has come to me and the makers expect me to do justice to it… I had to look like I am a real MMA fighter and I would have been stupid not to have worked on my craft. And I couldn’t have done it side by side with another film because how would I have explained the weight gain? Maybe there is extra pressure on me because I haven’t had a release in over a year, but I believe that in the years to come, people will never say, ‘Sid didn’t have a film between June 2014 and August 2015’… I would rather they say, ‘Brothers was a film worth waiting for’.
Is there anything of Sidharth in Monty?
The common trait that Monty has with all men is how most of us don’t talk about our personal issues with each other… be it brothers or be it a father-brother relationship. Men, in general, keep a lot to themselves… they don’t want to appear vulnerable to their fathers... and even with their brothers, they will do all kinds of masti, but never show their weak side to each other. That’s something I could associate with. My brother is six years older than me and if today he and I have a serious problem with each other, we will be mature enough to talk about it, but even until a few years ago, we weren’t really communicative. This is such a manly film and yet at the end you will see how men can be so, so emotional… maybe sometimes even more than women (smiles).
You were apparently intimidated by Akshay Kumar in the fight scenes…
Yea... very, very scared (smiles). He’s Akshay Kumar… he’s the guru of action. Initially, I was a bundle of nerves. But then, slowly, I came into my own and all the training that I underwent really helped a lot. But there was always an element of nervousness and anxiety to face him. But Akshay Sir was always very helpful and encouraging.
But I must tell you that Akshay Sir is a huge inspiration… and not only as an actor. I just admire how he comes on set every day making up his mind to enjoy his day no matter what the external circumstances are. This is a film which has no light moments, but he would make a conscious decision to entertain himself and all of us. He would always be like: ‘Achha, shot mein rona hai lekin uske pehle jee bhar ke hans lete hain’. You can only do all this if you are an inherently happy and good person in life. I just love the fact that he’s reached this level of stardom without taking his work too seriously and yet he always manages to do good work. That’s how I aspire to be in my life and career.
Varun Dhawan and you started off together with Student of the Year and this year alone, he’s had a critically-acclaimed film in Badlapur and a Rs 100-crore blockbuster in ABCD 2. Doesn’t that make you even a wee bit jealous?
I was present at Varun’s party when ABCD 2 made Rs 100 crore and I was very happy for him (smiles). I wouldn’t say I was jealous, but yes, his success and the success of all my contemporaries eggs me on to try harder and be better in my work. For me competitiveness means doing my own work well… I am not someone who looks left or right. Since I have no control over what anyone else does, I feel I shouldn’t waste my time thinking, ‘Usne woh kar liya… isne yeh picture ko hit kar daala’ (smiles). I am happy when my contemporaries do well… I am there with them and I make sure I celebrate my success with them… they all came to my bash when Ek Villain made (Rs) 100 crore. My personal equation with anyone doesn’t change because of what happens at the box office.
Apart from Ek Villain (Balaji Motion Pictures), the general idea is that you haven’t grown as much as a Varun or even a Sushant Singh Rajput because you have restricted yourself to only Karan Johar productions...
Hasee Toh Phasee was a Phantom production backed by Dharma (productions, owned by Karan) and even Brothers has many co-producers. But I am not complaining at all because I believe that they are the best production house in the country. I am here because of Mr Karan Johar… he’s given me this life and this career. I am extremely grateful to them for bringing me this far and I am not going to be apologetic about that. I love being a part of Dharma (smiles).
Why don’t we see more of you on social media?
We know for a fact that fans love pictures of you showing off your abs…
Wow, is it?!
(Laughs) Recently, I have become active, especially when I was in Coonoor where we would be doing a lot of activities beyond the film set (of Kapoor & Sons). I write my own tweets… no one else does it for me and sometimes, it becomes tough for me to take out time to be on social media often. But I am learning. It’s a very honest medium and you get a lot of feedback and a very palpable vibe from your fans. It’s just that I am such a private person that I find it tough to tweet about mundane things like... ‘Gym gaya… coffee peeya… khana khaya’ (smiles).
Most women are looking forward to Kapoor & Sons. For us, it’s getting to see two heart-throbs at the price of one ticket…
(Laughs) I love the way you put it! Fawad is extremely popular with the slightly mature women audience, but even young girls love him. We would have a huge crowd in the hotel just to see him. It’s a light-hearted film and I really got along well with him and with the rest of the cast and crew. We spent a long time there and Coonoor hardly has three restaurants to go to out of which one is Indian, one Chinese, and one claims to be Italian (laughs). We would play cricket and dumb-charades… it was almost like a holiday. All the energies matched, especially mine and Fawad’s. He has the habit of using this word ‘masla’ a lot which I think I have picked up… I realised a few days ago that I was using it a lot in my interviews (smiles). I was like: ‘Shit, I am now talking like Fawad!’
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